Drakensberg - Walking in Cobham - Pholela Cave and Amakehla Pass

"WE SIMPLY NEED THOSE WILD WILDERNESSES AVAILABLE TO US, EVEN IF WE NEVER DO MORE THAN DRIVE TO ITS EDGE AND LOOK IN.”

UNKNOWN

Drakensberg

Walking in Cobham

Pholela Cave and Amakehla Pass

Ask any farmer in the Mzimkhulu Wilderness area what the major issue here is and he or she will say stock theft. It’s an old ‘custom’ invented by the Bushmen when white settlers moved into their hunting grounds, and later adopted by the Basotho as their national sport. But, whereas the Bushmen had just cause, the modern Basotho cattle and horse thieves are brazen criminals pillaging the rich pickings of a foreign country. The two points to the south of Sani Pass are the major landmarks of the Southern Drakensberg: Hodgson’s Peaks are named after a farmer who, in 1862, joined a posse to follow Bushmen cattle thieves into the mountains. While chasing a mounted Bushman along the summit near Mzimkhulu Pas, Thomas Hodgson was severely wounded in the thigh. He died the following day and is buried somewhere up there. Robert Speirs, who was among the commando, was lost without horse or food for about two weeks after the incident. He spent some time in a cave, which must still have been used by Bushmen after this because scenes depicting the incident were painted on the walls. It was named Speir’s Cave and hikers who are persistent will locate it along the Mzimkhulu Pass route. The gateway to this area is the town of Underberg.

Pholela Cave and Amakehla Pass

Route: From Cobham up the Pholela River to the cave, then up the pass to the head of a southerly tributary

Distance: 17.5 km one way

Duration: 2 Days

Grade: Extreme

General: Most first-time summiteers in this area head straight up the Pholela River to its head in the bowl of Giant’s Cup and up Masubasuba Pass. However, this route is in a shocking state and should be avoided. By far the better route is up Amakehla Pass, following the southerly tributary. The route at the top of the pass poses not technical difficulties, but it does wind through rock bands and will give vertigo sufferers something to cling on to.

   From Cobham head up the Pholela Valley, with the Giant’s Cup looming dead ahead, to reach the river after 1 km. Thereafter the path follows the left-hand bank for about 1 km before taking the direct course where the river loops away to the right. You regain the river after another 1.5 km and follow it for 3 km below the Little Berg formation of the Whale Back, on your left – a number of paths lead up the Whale Back.

   At the confluence of the iNhlabeni, cross this tributary and continue round a headland following the course of the Pholela. After 1 km you cross the river, then cross it again three times in succession a few hundred meters on.

   Back on the left-hand bank; continue up the valley for 3 km to where three gorge-like valleys meet. Gorge Cave, the smallest of the area, is reached up the northerly, right-hand valley; much larger Spectacle Cave up the southerly, left-hand stream; and Pholela Cave up the middle, that is, straight on. However, the Pholela River actually turns sharp right here up the northerly of the three gorges. This route will take you up Masubasuba Pass. Pholela Cave is 700 m ahead after crossing the stream leading to Spectacle Cave, but it’s on the right-hand side of the valley.

   Amakehla Pass continues up the left-hand side of the stream, for 2 km, into a huge bowl at the base of the mountain wall. Where you reach the base of the near-vertical cliffs, the path leaves the stream gully and goes up the slope to the left, making its way around the twin spires of Amakehla Amabili (meaning ‘the fingers’), winding its way along and up a secluded gully on the southern side of the ‘amabilis’.

   Another pass just to the south of this, going more directly up the ridge to the south from Lakes Cave, is Minaret Pass, used by dagga smugglers. However, this one is even steeper and more sinuous than Amakehla. Both lead into the upper Pitsaneng Valley. This large river can be followed to a curved horseshoe bend near the top of Stones Pass, 5.5 km to the south-south-west.

   You can return via either Giant’s Cup or Masubasuba Pass, past Gorge Cave and down the Pholela, if you don’t mind trailing through knee-deep erosion gullies.

We as hikers, explorers, and adventurers have the absolute duty to respect and protect our Wildernesses. Nobody else will do it for us. Take ownership!

The End.

Safe Hiking.

References and Acknowledgements

From the book: “Best Walks of the Drakensberg” – David Bristow

Photos:  ©Willem Pelser

Compiled by:  Willem Pelser

Drakensberg - Finding a new home…

 “THESE I HAVE LOVED:

RAINDROPS COUCHING IN COOL FLOWERS,

AND FLOWERS THEMSELVES, THAT SWAY THROUGH SUNNY HOURS,

DREAMING OF MOTHS THAT DRINK THEM UNDER THE MOON.”

UNKNOWN

Drakensberg

Finding a new home…

When life was still wild, free and uncomplicated in the Drakensberg Wilderness, hundreds of years  ago. A story of then…………..

The three bushman went up swiftly to the cliff, bow hand ready, and keen eyes alert. A troop of baboons hunting for insects went hand over hand up the rocks. They stopped at intervals with their heads carried high to look down on the newcomers. Then they moved off, with tails crooked and shoulders high. “Boggom,” yelled the young males, sitting on their heels, while the old men of the troop followed.

“I do not like these people who sit on their heels,” said Snolla. “They steal children who are searching for herbs.”

“Au,” scoffed Dakwyn.

They were now near the foot of the cliff. Their eyes were fixed on one large cave about twenty feet from the bottom, reached by a growth of roots clinging close to the rock, and worn smooth by the passing of feet.

“Stand here, Dakwyn, with your bow ready, for I go up.” Karu went up the ladder of roots, but stopped at the top till his eyes just looked over the edge. He sank his head the fraction of an inch, but he did not cry out. Yet his eyes had dwelt on an object that might well have shaken his nerves – the eyes of a leopard lying full stretched, with head lifted, green eyes well opened, fixed on him. The lips snarled, lifting the whiskers, the eyes narrowed, while the small ears flattened against the round skull. The thing hissed like a furious snake.

  

Both Snolla and Dakwyn, noting Karu’s fixed eyes, were aware of danger. Snolla poised her spear. Dakwyn took two spare arrows in his mouth and laid a third on the bowstring. Come what might, they were ready to face it.

Karu’s glance never wavered as he debated in his mind what to do. At last he determined that he would have this cave and that the leopard must go. Grasping a root firmly with the left hand, he raised his feet till his body was bent. Then suddenly he straightened up, poised a spear till the shaft quivered, and hurled it. At the same time, he dropped his feet to a lower hold and flattened his body against the rock. In the right hand he held a reserve spear, the blade pointing up. This movement was instantaneous, but on top of it, with a roar, came the leopard’s spring. As its head showed over the edge, the spear darted up to the white throat, and the leopard, half stumbling, sprang to the ground twenty feet below, where the two young Bushmen stood looking up.

An arrow hummed at the body in mid-air. A second took the leopard in the throat as it reached the ground. At the same time Snolla’s spear was driven in. One blow the leopard made that hurled Dakwyn aside and it followed screaming upon the boy. Karu dropped to the ground and ran in with his spear. Snolla picked up Dakwyn’s fallen spear and leapt in too without a moment’s thought.

The leopard opened its mouth till the fangs showed to the gums, stood up, boxed the air with lightning strokes, roared, and fell dead.

Dakwyn staggered to his feet, swayed a bit, and then laughed. Karu looked at the boy searchingly. “Lie down,” he said, and when Dakwyn rested he felt his bones.

“Au,” he said, “the blow did not fall on the bone, else you had a broken bone. A little rest and rubbing and you are all right.”

“Woo,” said Dakwyn, as though one would say “Poof” and went up the ladder of roots and into the cave.

Snolla laughed and scrambled up after, but Karu sat down to take the spotted hide from the leopard, and the boy and the girl slid down again to help him. The claws were cut off to use as necklaces, the fangs broken out for the same purpose, and all the sinews and tendons drawn and saved. The body was cut into portions, to be eaten, and Karu presented the hide to his daughter.

“Snolla, you have a chief’s spear, which you used well. Here is a chief’s robe after you have prepared the skin. Now we go to our new house to cook and eat.”

They took possession of the cave and found it, as they thought, an old home of the Bushmen. There were paintings on the walls, and the sign of fire, and also a clay pot that the girl seized with joy.

From the cave they looked down upon the wild valley, thick with game grazing undisturbed, yet some knowledge of the Bushmen and of the leopard fight, however, was clear from the fact that scores of heads were turned in their direction.

“They do not yet get our smell, they have not seen or heard us, but they heard the leopard cry his death song, and they knew man has come.”

From far below there came, thin but still clear, the neigh of a quagga, and they saw that more heads were looking up.

Snolla’s smouldering stick of hardwood which she had brought with her was used for making a fire in the cave, and while Karu took the pot to find the waterhole that should be near, Dakwyn gathered bundles of branches for their beds.

Presently they were gnawing at roast ribs of leopard, and rubbing fat into their feet and bodies while Karu told stories of the Mantis as they sat at the mouth of the “house”, looking at the glories of the setting sun as he painted the sky with his brad feathers.

“And tell me, my father, of the girl who swept the coals into the sky where they shine as stars, and who laid the path of the white ashes (Milky Way) to bring back the sun.”

And Karu told the story till the colours paled and the hush of the night prepared for the arrogant greeting of the lions. Then at the grim music they nestled into their beds and slept, with the red eyes of the hardwood keeping watch out of the heap of ashes at their feet.

And so life changed………………

We as hikers, explorers, and
adventurers have the absolute duty to respect and protect our Wildernesses.
Nobody else will do it for us. Take ownership!

The End.

Safe Hiking.

References and Acknowledgements

From the book: The Hunter – Ernest Glansville

Photos:  ©Willem Pelser

Compiled by:  Willem Pelser

WILDERNESS……. What does it mean?

 “I HEARD THE WILDERNESS CALLING IN THE DISTANCE

SO I PACKED MY THINGS AND RAN

FAR AWAY FROM ALL THE TROUBLE

ALONE I TRAVELED ON WITH NOTHING BUT A SHADOW.”

UNKNOWN

WILDERNESS…….

What does it mean?

The term ‘wilderness area’ has been described by WR Bainbridge as follows:

   ‘A wilderness area is any extensive undeveloped area, where the natural community of life is untrammeled and uninhabited by man, who visits, but does not remain. It should retain an intrinsically wild appearance and character, or be capable of rehabilitation back into this wild state by relatively simple management processes. Its wild character must not be marred by more than minimal evidence of enduring man-made disturbance. The area must be well suited to a primitive or unconfined type of outdoor recreation and must provide the experience of isolation from the outside world, to those who enter. It will be aimed to provide high quality physical and spiritual recreation and inspiration, on a strictly limited basis, for the discriminating few who are prepared to enter by personal endeavor, in a spirit of acceptance of the Wilderness concept. Those who enter must depend on their own efforts and their own competence for survival. An essential attribute of a wilderness area is the provision of solitude, free from all mechanical disturbances.’

   What a brilliant definition to describe a Wilderness area!

   Scanning a mountain range, the untrained eye might well accept its monumental beauty as something so remote as to be seemingly lifeless. Only when given the chance of a closer look can one marvel at the incredible abundance of activity which starts at the foothills and continues up to the very peaks. Wide, sweeping grasses merge into closely-packed shrubs which grow into thick, natural forests – giving way to towering cliffs and jagged pinnacles.

   All around, one senses the primeval origins, mysteries, and myths which made the wilderness one of mankind’s first homes. Entirely free of charge is the thrilling spectacle of the haunting dawn of a new day.

   Senses can be exercised as one walks in the wilderness. The more perceptive might detect the rattling of termites among leaf litter, or inhale the aromatic charm of dense bush.

   Systematically, and not so slowly, the development of your awareness begins to amaze and delight you. The call of the bird as yet unknown, the clear-cut track of an animal in dried mud, or the peculiar formation of an aloe……all this and so very much more makes the personal discovery of the wilderness a never-ending, completely rewarding process. Moreover, how forcibly are we reminded of our very insignificant role in the greater scheme of things.

We as hikers, explorers, and
adventurers have the absolute duty to respect and protect our Wildernesses.
Nobody else will do it for us. Take ownership!

The End.

Safe Hiking.

References and Acknowledgements

From the book: Walk through the Wilderness – Walker/Richards

Photos:  ©Willem Pelser

Compiled by:  Willem Pelser